Design Ops Metrics
Summary
This session will detail how we are capturing metrics on product development and resource allocation. We will discuss how we are capturing people’s time on task to get us to a standard set of recipes that we can use when planning and budgeting for new products. We will discuss how we captured and identified tasks that could be handled by a 3rd party offshore vendor to free up our in-house designer who needs to be focused on strategic and innovative work.
Key Insights
-
•
Legacy Excel files fragmented by chapter and supplier caused inefficiencies and inaccurate budget forecasts.
-
•
Switching to SmartSheet templates allowed real-time aggregation of asset logs and invoices across multiple projects and vendors.
-
•
Embedding complexity codes and unique invoice IDs in SmartSheet enabled automatic line item calculations and budget variance alerts.
-
•
Design managers gained evidence-based visibility into budget usage relative to project timeline, improving scope and cost decisions.
-
•
Resource planning improved by scheduling tasks at a granular level and calculating designer allocation percentages per week.
-
•
Visual dashboards revealed workload peaks and valleys, helping managers balance resources and prevent burnout.
-
•
A year-long time study with Toggl captured designers' real time spent on 18 standardized tasks aligned to the product lifecycle.
-
•
Data from the time study exposed variable task durations by discipline and grade level, invalidating one-size-fits-all resourcing.
-
•
Toggle’s user-friendly interface and searchable preloaded tasks minimized friction in time tracking adoption.
-
•
Effective training, transparent communication, and time-boxed pilots helped overcome 'big brother' concerns among designers.
Notable Quotes
"We didn't actually overspend our budget. The allocations simply fell short of our expenditure."
"Saying on budget is every project goal, and in design it can be the hardest, especially with ever-changing requirements."
"At the beginning, academic designers give their best guesses for scope, but those numbers rarely hold."
"Sometimes projects are requesting less than anticipated, sometimes much more; forecasting is always a challenge."
"SmartSheet magic is really just frosty if statement formulas connecting 75 columns of metadata."
"Design managers can see how much budget has been used versus project progress to make evidence-based decisions."
"The yellow 80% allocation guide reminds that designers shouldn't be expected at full 100% project time due to meetings and breaks."
"Time study serves designers by preventing over allocation and helping organize their daily energy management."
"Some designers forget to stop the Toggl timer, which skews data but is easy to spot and correct."
"There's always something to learn from a time study, no matter how mature your design ops team is."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"It’s about us, the design ops practitioners, and what we need today to be better at our jobs."
Bria AlexanderTheme Two Intro
October 3, 2023
"Check-outs and reflections normalized pausing and being honest about what we don’t know."
Ariba JahanTeam Resiliency Through a Pandemic
January 8, 2024
"Many big companies now have roles related to ecosystem design like VP or senior managers of ecosystem."
Cornelius RachieruHandling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
June 9, 2021
"WCAG does not apply to native mobile apps, which is how slow progress can be on this topic."
Megan Clegg Michael Haggerty-Villa Alexis MorinSpace for Everyone: Reframing Accessibility Through a Wider Lens
June 10, 2021
"Who works here anyways? I knew about immediate teams but beyond that, it was a fog."
Saara Kamppari-MillerCartography for Design Communities
September 10, 2025
"Openly sharing stories helps us learn from those who came before us and carve new paths."
Kara KaneTheme One Intro
November 16, 2022
"Power sharing requires behavior change, reflection, and descending about expertise."
Natalia RadywylCo-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector
November 16, 2022
"Soap dispensers and water sensors often fail on darker skin because they rely on light reflection."
Nancy DouyonWe'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
June 15, 2018
"Co-creation between users and technology determines if this AI evolves to be useful or harmful."
Peter Van DijckBuilding the Rosenbot
June 4, 2024
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What lessons can we learn from Corridor Digital’s open-source AI project about community-driven design?
How will the roles of designers, product managers, and engineers evolve as AI blurs traditional boundaries?
What challenges arise from emerging AI tools that blur the roles of PM, design, and engineering?